restrained the urge to grin. Being River Glen’s librarian was hardly a sign of raging ambition, but if thinking it kept Betsy from interfering in her personal life, she’d do everything she could to promote the notion.
Dana reached over and patted the woman’s hand. “Thanks for caring about me, Betsy, but I’m doing just fine. I love it here. All I want in my life right now is a little peace and quiet. Romance can wait.”
Betsy sighed dramatically. “Okay, honey, if that’s what you want, but don’t put up too much of a fight. Nick Verone’s the best catch around these parts. You’d be crazy to let him get away.”
Dana spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about Betsy’s admonition. She also spent entirely too much time thinking about Nick Verone. Even if her mind hadn’t betrayed her by dredging up provocative images, there was Tony to remind her.
He bounded into the library right after school, wearing a huge grin. “Hey, Ms. Brantley, I hear you and me and Dad are going out on Saturday.”
Dana winced as several other kids turned to listen. “Your dad invited me to come along to bingo. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Mind? Heck, no. You’re the greatest. All the kids think so. Right, guys?” There were enthusiastic nods from the trio gathered behind him. Tony studied her with an expression that was entirely too wise for a ten-year-old and lowered his voice to what he obviously considered to be a discreet whisper. It echoed through every nook and cranny in the library.
“Say, do you want me to get lost on Saturday night?” He blushed furiously as his friends moved in closer so they wouldn’t miss a word. “I mean so you and Dad can be alone and all. I could spend the night over at Bobby’s. His mom wouldn’t mind.” Bobby nodded enthusiastically.
If Dana had been the type, she might have blushed right along with Tony. Instead, she said with heartfelt conviction, “I most certainly do not want you to get lost. Your father planned for all of us to spend the evening together and that’s just the way I want it.”
“But I know about grown-ups and stuff. I don’t want to get in the way. I think it’d be great, if you and Dad—”
“Tony!”
“Well, you know.”
“What I know,” she said briskly, “is that you guys have an English assignment due this week. Have you picked out your books yet?”
All of them except Tony said yes and drifted off. Tony’s round hazel eyes stared at her hopefully. “I thought maybe you’d help me.”
Dana sighed. She knew now where Tony had gotten his manipulative skills. He was every bit as persuasive as his daddy. She pulled Robinson Crusoe, Huckleberry Finn and Treasure Island from the shelves. “Take a look at these.”
She left him skimming through the books and went to help several other students who’d come in with assignments. The rest of the afternoon and evening flew by. At nine o’clock, when she was ready to lock up for the day, she discovered that Tony was in a back corner still hunched over Treasure Island.
“Tony, you should have been home hours ago,” she said in dismay. “Your father must be worried sick.”
He barely glanced up at her. “I called him and told him where I was. He said it was okay.”
“When did you call him?”
“After school.”
Dana groaned. “Do you have any idea how late it is now?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I got to reading this. It’s pretty good.”
“Then why don’t you check it out and take it home with you?”
He regarded her sheepishly. “I’d rather read it here with you.”
An unexpected warm feeling stole into her heart. She could understand how Tony felt. He’d probably gone home all too often to an empty house. He’d clearly been starved for mothering since his own mother had died, despite the attentions of a maternal grandmother he mentioned frequently and affectionately. Whatever women there were in Nick Verone’s life, they weren’t meeting Tony’s needs. A disturbing glimmer of satisfaction rippled through her at that thought, and she mentally stomped it right back into oblivion, where it belonged. The Verones’ lifestyle was none of her concern.
Knowing that and acting on it, however, were two very different things. Subconsciously she’d felt herself slipping into a nurturing role with Tony from the day they’d met. Despite his boundless energy, there had been something a little lost and lonely about him. He reminded her of the way she’d felt for far too long, and instinctively she’d wanted to banish the sad expression from his eyes.
For Dana, Tony had filled an aching emptiness that increasingly seemed to haunt her now that she knew it was never likely to go away. From the time she’d been a little girl, her room cluttered with dolls in every shape and size, she’d wanted children of her own. She’d had a golden life in which all her dreams seemed to be granted, and she’d expected that to be the easiest wish of all to fulfill.
When she and Sam had married, they’d had their lives planned out: a year together to settle in, then a baby and two years after that another one. But too many things had changed in that first year, and ironically, she’d been the one to postpone getting pregnant, even though the decision had torn her apart.
Now her marriage was over and she wasn’t counting on another one. She didn’t even want one. And it was getting late. She was nearing the age when a woman began to realize it was now or never for a baby. She’d forced herself to accept the fact that for her it would be never, but there were still days when she longed for that child to hold in her empty arms. Tony, so hungry for attention, had seemed to be a godsend, but she knew now that her instinctive nurturing had to stop. It wasn’t healthy for Tony and it assuredly wasn’t wise for her—not with Nick beginning to hint around that it might be a package deal.
“Get your stuff together,” she said abruptly to Tony. “I’ll drive you home.”
Hurt sprang up in his eyes at her sharp tone.
“I can walk,” he protested with the automatic cockiness of a young boy anxious to prove himself grown up. Then his eyes lit up. “But if you drive me home,” he said slyly, “maybe you can come in and have some ice cream with dad and me.”
“Ice cream is not a proper dinner,” Dana replied automatically, and then could have bitten her outspoken tongue.
“Yeah, but Dad’s a pretty lousy cook. We go to Gracie’s a lot. When we don’t go there, we usually eat some yucky frozen dinners. I’d rather have ice cream.”
Dana felt a stirring of something that felt disturbingly like sympathy as she pictured Nick and Tony existing on tasteless dinners that came in little metal trays. If these images kept up, she was going to have to buy army boots to stomp them out. The Verones’ diet was of absolutely no concern to her. Tony looked sturdy enough and Nick was certainly not suffering from a lack of vitamins. She’d seen his muscle tone for herself, when he’d been stretching around up on her roof.
“So, how about it?” Tony said, interrupting her before she got lost in those intriguing images again. “Will you come in for ice
